Ezra Pound: The Complete Poetry Recordings
April 10, 2007 8:30 AM Subscribe
Heh. I think every post I've made on Metafilter might somehow trace back to you.
Regarding the Pound recordings, these are great. Pound scares the shit out of me, but hearing him perform Mauberly is great fun.
posted by roll truck roll at 8:52 AM on April 10, 2007
Regarding the Pound recordings, these are great. Pound scares the shit out of me, but hearing him perform Mauberly is great fun.
posted by roll truck roll at 8:52 AM on April 10, 2007
Mother of God, Pound's reading of the "usura" canto is one of the heaviest recordings of all time-- the oracle of doomed capitalism.
Thanks for this.
posted by digaman at 9:09 AM on April 10, 2007
Thanks for this.
posted by digaman at 9:09 AM on April 10, 2007
paraphrasing James Salter:
-Ezra Pond was a traitor. They should have shot him.
-What did they do?
-They gave him a poetry prize.
posted by four panels at 9:12 AM on April 10, 2007
-Ezra Pond was a traitor. They should have shot him.
-What did they do?
-They gave him a poetry prize.
posted by four panels at 9:12 AM on April 10, 2007
At work, so I can't listen, but favourited for later. Many thanks.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 9:13 AM on April 10, 2007
posted by thatwhichfalls at 9:13 AM on April 10, 2007
awesome. thanks - great picture of Pound too.
posted by taliaferro at 9:17 AM on April 10, 2007
posted by taliaferro at 9:17 AM on April 10, 2007
Oh wow, fantastic. I agree, digman, on the "usura" canto -- I've haven't been able to get the sound of his voice out my head since hearing that for the first time (in a class) several years ago.
posted by treepour at 10:20 AM on April 10, 2007
posted by treepour at 10:20 AM on April 10, 2007
nice stuff. J.J. Angleton archives has or had a lot of material on pound.
posted by clavdivs at 10:21 AM on April 10, 2007
posted by clavdivs at 10:21 AM on April 10, 2007
THE THOUGHT OF WHAT AMERICA, THE THOUGHT OF WHAT AMERICA WOULD BE LIKE if the classics had a wide circulation troubles my sleeeeeep...
posted by exlotuseater at 11:31 AM on April 10, 2007
posted by exlotuseater at 11:31 AM on April 10, 2007
My HS English teacher used to play him reading the usura canto for us. Wonderful stuff. Thank you.
posted by QIbHom at 11:41 AM on April 10, 2007
posted by QIbHom at 11:41 AM on April 10, 2007
"And in thy mind beauty, o Artemis":
[THIS IS GOOD]
posted by languagehat at 11:43 AM on April 10, 2007
[THIS IS GOOD]
posted by languagehat at 11:43 AM on April 10, 2007
i've had that usura recording for a while now, and never tire of playing it VERY LOUD to the collection agents and 'friendly' bank reminders calling at 9:00 am sunday mornings about my student loan payments (no matter paid on time or not). They usually hang up around "CONTRA NATURA", seeing as that must really hit home.
if I've offended any collection agents, may i remind you are an offense against nature.
posted by sarcasman at 12:18 PM on April 10, 2007 [1 favorite]
if I've offended any collection agents, may i remind you are an offense against nature.
posted by sarcasman at 12:18 PM on April 10, 2007 [1 favorite]
Four Panels, as to your predictable comment: All true poets are "traitors" to the state -- as Plato knew. That's part of their job. What's of more concern is that Pound was an anti-Semite and supporter of Mussolini, which is inexcusable. But he still deserved that poetry prize, whatever it was.
posted by digaman at 12:19 PM on April 10, 2007
posted by digaman at 12:19 PM on April 10, 2007
Bless you, digaman. Few people are able to take such a clearheaded stance on such an inflammatory subject. What he said, every word.
posted by languagehat at 2:14 PM on April 10, 2007
posted by languagehat at 2:14 PM on April 10, 2007
It was the Bollingen, not the Pulitzer.
And yeah, his readings are interesting. So are the radio broadcasts that got him arrested by the US military.
As for the debate of his politics vs. his art, well, it's best to let other accomplished poets make their own judgements. Michael Palmer realizes you can't have the art without the bigotry, and that's good enough for me.
posted by bardic at 3:09 PM on April 10, 2007
And yeah, his readings are interesting. So are the radio broadcasts that got him arrested by the US military.
As for the debate of his politics vs. his art, well, it's best to let other accomplished poets make their own judgements. Michael Palmer realizes you can't have the art without the bigotry, and that's good enough for me.
posted by bardic at 3:09 PM on April 10, 2007
Michael Palmer: "It's a difficult thing when you're growing up and you have heroes like Pound and so on, and the truth begins to come out about Yeats and Pound and their political agenda, and its horrifying: racism, anti-Semitism you name it, they got it."
Obviously, it's a complex debate, but Pound himself came to later renounce some of his anti-semitism as a "suburban predudice" to no other a poet than Allen Ginsberg.
I guess I'm just uncomfortable with the position of "let's just forget about the past and embrace the art." I happen to love the art myself, but serious critics and poets realize that ignorance of modernism's direct relationship to bigotry and fascism is not a responsible one, nor more importantly, a productive one.
posted by bardic at 3:19 PM on April 10, 2007
Obviously, it's a complex debate, but Pound himself came to later renounce some of his anti-semitism as a "suburban predudice" to no other a poet than Allen Ginsberg.
I guess I'm just uncomfortable with the position of "let's just forget about the past and embrace the art." I happen to love the art myself, but serious critics and poets realize that ignorance of modernism's direct relationship to bigotry and fascism is not a responsible one, nor more importantly, a productive one.
posted by bardic at 3:19 PM on April 10, 2007
I guess I'm just uncomfortable with the position of "let's just forget about the past and embrace the art." I happen to love the art myself, but serious critics and poets realize that ignorance of modernism's direct relationship to bigotry and fascism is not a responsible one, nor more importantly, a productive one.
Well, sure, but who here is ignoring anything? I was agreeing with digaman's "What's of more concern is that Pound was an anti-Semite and supporter of Mussolini, which is inexcusable," which doesn't exactly suggest forgetting the past, and I don't see any other comments recommending that either.
posted by languagehat at 5:05 PM on April 10, 2007
Well, sure, but who here is ignoring anything? I was agreeing with digaman's "What's of more concern is that Pound was an anti-Semite and supporter of Mussolini, which is inexcusable," which doesn't exactly suggest forgetting the past, and I don't see any other comments recommending that either.
posted by languagehat at 5:05 PM on April 10, 2007
Er, and by "ignoring" I mean "showing ignorance of." Stupid English language.
posted by languagehat at 5:06 PM on April 10, 2007
posted by languagehat at 5:06 PM on April 10, 2007
I read digaman's comment, and your emphatic "blessing" of it, as attempts to cut off discussion of the obvious. I've been part of many a debate/pissing-match re: Pound, Eliot, and modernist esthetics and their relationship to fascism and/or purity, so if I'm reading too much into anybody's comments I apologize. However, these arguments do tend to follow a typical trajectory. At some point, somebody tends to play the New Critical "get out of racism" free card, so to speak -- e.g., "It's about the art man, not the politics!" It's a very tired maneuver, and maybe not what's going on here.
posted by bardic at 5:37 PM on April 10, 2007
posted by bardic at 5:37 PM on April 10, 2007
Re: Pound. I'm with Max Geltman.
They should have hung him and thrown his Bolligen Prize in the grave right after him.
posted by Chrischris at 6:52 PM on April 10, 2007
They should have hung him and thrown his Bolligen Prize in the grave right after him.
posted by Chrischris at 6:52 PM on April 10, 2007
At some point, somebody tends to play the New Critical "get out of racism" free card, so to speak -- e.g., "It's about the art man, not the politics!" It's a very tired maneuver
I don't disagree with you, but I also don't know where this leaves us when we want to discuss the work. Is it merely a matter of not bracketing his politics & prejudices? But if you don't bracket those issues to some degree, how is it possible to engage with the work as art at all? The difficulty, it seems to me, is that the presence of overt anti-semitism, fascism, etc., demands response in a way that ordinary biographical details don't. But what should that response be? And to what degree should it interfere with our reception of the work as art? For me, these are troubling questions (and I don't have an answer except to leave them as open questions . . . )
posted by treepour at 9:56 PM on April 10, 2007 [1 favorite]
I don't disagree with you, but I also don't know where this leaves us when we want to discuss the work. Is it merely a matter of not bracketing his politics & prejudices? But if you don't bracket those issues to some degree, how is it possible to engage with the work as art at all? The difficulty, it seems to me, is that the presence of overt anti-semitism, fascism, etc., demands response in a way that ordinary biographical details don't. But what should that response be? And to what degree should it interfere with our reception of the work as art? For me, these are troubling questions (and I don't have an answer except to leave them as open questions . . . )
posted by treepour at 9:56 PM on April 10, 2007 [1 favorite]
treepour typed "For me, these are troubling questions (and I don't have an answer except to leave them as open questions . . . )"
I'd say that's a better answer than you might think.
What if we looked at different ways of reading poetry not as competing, overarching philosophies, but as different tools in a box? You use the right tool for the right job.
Sometimes you need to look at a piece of literature as a historical document, and sometimes you need to look at it as a contextless artifact that washed up on shore. And sometimes you need good old reading-in-bed-with-a-six-pack-of-Sierra-Nevada escapism. Pound of all people can handle not only multiple readings, but different readings.
I agree with you, bardic, that the dangerous political implications of modernism (English-language modernism, especially) should always be at the forefront of our discussions. Certain sectors of the current world of experimental poetry are, IMO, dangerously on the verge of repeating the past. But we can also recognize the poetry of Pound and Eliot and Yeats as poetry. Never forget what we're fighting for, as it were.
posted by roll truck roll at 10:16 PM on April 10, 2007
I'd say that's a better answer than you might think.
What if we looked at different ways of reading poetry not as competing, overarching philosophies, but as different tools in a box? You use the right tool for the right job.
Sometimes you need to look at a piece of literature as a historical document, and sometimes you need to look at it as a contextless artifact that washed up on shore. And sometimes you need good old reading-in-bed-with-a-six-pack-of-Sierra-Nevada escapism. Pound of all people can handle not only multiple readings, but different readings.
I agree with you, bardic, that the dangerous political implications of modernism (English-language modernism, especially) should always be at the forefront of our discussions. Certain sectors of the current world of experimental poetry are, IMO, dangerously on the verge of repeating the past. But we can also recognize the poetry of Pound and Eliot and Yeats as poetry. Never forget what we're fighting for, as it were.
posted by roll truck roll at 10:16 PM on April 10, 2007
wow. thanks for the post, thanks for the great discussion. I'd never heard his voice before, it's impact was a real slap in the face, so ancient and strong. I was compelled into a sort of free form non poem poem response, which I have chosen to post here out of hubris and in the spirit of open appreciation I sense from most of you in this thread.
That It Was Near One Hundred Years Ago You Spoke These Words
Ezra Pound, now it is I hear your voice, which once you spoke
One hundred years ago. Could you have known, that day,
Whichever then it was, That the timbre you did then inflect,
Might echo on ever thus far? That you stood just close enough
to the Brink that barely your cry might enter, the echo,
ever to resound. As epic Oak tree cracks, your voice does timbre,
here I hear it, as if from aether. How it did, in actuality, arrive,
I suppose is of no consequence, though well I can imagine,
the actual hands that passed the recording, an actual etching,
indentation made in material. Immaterial, more important the timbre!,
astounding warble which indicates to me, how solid and strong
your trachea was, almost one hundred years ago. We might today question
the this and that of all you did. Yet proof is only in significance,
that many was your audience, and immense the timber of your voice.
posted by kaspen at 12:24 AM on April 11, 2007
That It Was Near One Hundred Years Ago You Spoke These Words
Ezra Pound, now it is I hear your voice, which once you spoke
One hundred years ago. Could you have known, that day,
Whichever then it was, That the timbre you did then inflect,
Might echo on ever thus far? That you stood just close enough
to the Brink that barely your cry might enter, the echo,
ever to resound. As epic Oak tree cracks, your voice does timbre,
here I hear it, as if from aether. How it did, in actuality, arrive,
I suppose is of no consequence, though well I can imagine,
the actual hands that passed the recording, an actual etching,
indentation made in material. Immaterial, more important the timbre!,
astounding warble which indicates to me, how solid and strong
your trachea was, almost one hundred years ago. We might today question
the this and that of all you did. Yet proof is only in significance,
that many was your audience, and immense the timber of your voice.
posted by kaspen at 12:24 AM on April 11, 2007
What treepour said. I had a prof in college, older guy, steeped in New Critical theory, "old school," so to speak, and to even mention Pound's or Eliot's or Yeat's politics (the latter being a lot more complicated than mere anti-semitism, IMO) was punishable by a low grade. And I realize that's not where digaman and languagehat are coming from, so I apologize. I do think it's unfair to write off the Salter quotation though (and the commenter who posted it) -- as a veteran of the Korean War, he's coming from an understandable position. Pound, that anti-semitic fuck who gave all those pro-fascist, anti-American speeches while American soldiers and Jewish concentration camp victims were dying throughout Europe? Yeah, shoot him.
(Although I've wondered if Salter himself wasn't being a bit facetious when he said those things about Pound. Discussion for another thread I guess.)
posted by bardic at 1:03 AM on April 11, 2007
(Although I've wondered if Salter himself wasn't being a bit facetious when he said those things about Pound. Discussion for another thread I guess.)
posted by bardic at 1:03 AM on April 11, 2007
But we can also recognize the poetry of Pound and Eliot and Yeats as poetry. Never forget what we're fighting for, as it were.
Agreed, but I still think it's easier said than done. Again, to defer to Michael Palmer, a man whose politics couldn't be more different than Pound's, the legacy of modern poetics is a difficult one to say the least.
posted by bardic at 1:05 AM on April 11, 2007
Agreed, but I still think it's easier said than done. Again, to defer to Michael Palmer, a man whose politics couldn't be more different than Pound's, the legacy of modern poetics is a difficult one to say the least.
posted by bardic at 1:05 AM on April 11, 2007
This is totally awesome. Even if you don't like Pound, there's scores of other readings there. Ginsberg, Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams... wow.
posted by weston at 7:29 AM on April 11, 2007
posted by weston at 7:29 AM on April 11, 2007
perhaps this comes too late in the thread: but an apt line from Master Kong works for the likes of Pound and other artists.
"neither denegrate a man because of what he says, nor what he says because of the man."
posted by sarcasman at 8:13 AM on April 11, 2007
"neither denegrate a man because of what he says, nor what he says because of the man."
posted by sarcasman at 8:13 AM on April 11, 2007
Oh yeah, PennSound is one of those sites it's really hard to imagine not existing. Check out the Jackson Mac Low.
posted by roll truck roll at 9:43 AM on April 11, 2007
posted by roll truck roll at 9:43 AM on April 11, 2007
My 2nd link in this comment was written by Mac Low, fwiw.
posted by bardic at 1:51 PM on April 11, 2007
posted by bardic at 1:51 PM on April 11, 2007
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posted by roll truck roll at 8:43 AM on April 10, 2007